Well, folks, Penn State fell for the fifth time in a row against No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday. In a cyclone of a season, the Nittany Lions enter November with no conference wins, no head coach, and seemingly no motivation.

2025 has seen Penn State go from making it to the College Football Playoff semifinals to the bottom of the Power Four barrel, and the 17 to 24-year-olds on the roster have felt the weight of that more than anyone.

“We’re in the middle of the storm, and we just can’t figure how to get out of it,” Terry Smith said post-game. “The seniors are hurting. I feel awful for those guys to end their careers this way. It’s very challenging. It’s challenging for all of us, but we have to figure out how to keep fighting.”

Players like Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen, Drew Allar, and Dani Dennis-Sutton gave up the chance to be on an NFL roster this season to come back and compete for a national championship.

Now, instead of breaking records and seeing their names on draft boards, the older guys have been forced into a therapist-like leadership role.

“Yeah, just being there for them [my teammates]. You know, during practice, meetings, and all that, just lightening the mood up.” Singleton said. “The past couple of weeks haven’t been the same as these past couple of years. But, you know, just being there for them.”

Smith commented on this a few weeks ago when he first took over as the interim head coach. His role is different then a lot of others because of the emotional pain the players are going through after losing James Franklin.

Former starting quarterback Allar is in a unique situation due to his injury. Not being able to play, he can put his full effort into helping ease the transition to Ethan Grunkemeyer and a new head coach.

Singleton said having Allar on the sideline today meant everything to him and the others in the locker room. He added that the Medina, Ohio, native has been at everything with the team, despite the injury.

“He’s like another coach out there. All the experience he has,” Grunkemeyer said about Allar after losing to Ohio State. “He did a great job today, you know, talking to me pregame, talking to me at halftime, and talking to me in between series. He does a great job with that. And kind of same way, saying what he sees from a player’s aspect, and then also, kind of like a coach’s aspect.”

Grunkemeyer arguably had the most potential emotions to deal with heading into the game. The Lewis Center, Ohio, native grew up going to Ohio State games and dreamed of playing in Ohio Stadium one day. Today, he completed that goal with his family in attendance, something similar to what Allar dealt with in the past.

As Penn State heads towards its first losing season other than 2020, a shortened year, since 2004 under Joe Paterno, the motivation to keep going is dwindling. Smith says growth has to be the reason the players continue to put every ounce of effort they can into the season.

“The beauty of sports, it teaches you everything,” Smith said. “It teaches you how to win. It teaches you how to lose, and it teaches you disappointment, happiness, every emotion there is. It teaches you how to handle it. You know, don’t get too high, don’t get too low.”

Smith doesn’t think the Nittany Lions are too far from getting back on track, but with No. 2 Indiana coming to town next week, that has to happen quickly.

“We just need one momentum play, and that momentum play has to follow up,” Smith said. “It’s just like the takeaway right at the end of the second quarter, and then the offense punches it in. You know, we have to be mature enough to come out of halftime and capitalize on that.”

That is exactly what Penn State has struggled with since firing Franklin. Without an experienced head coach or its starting quarterback and natural leader, the Nittany Lions have struggled to finish games.

Against Iowa, Penn State was winning 14-10 at halftime, but lost 25-24. Against the Buckeyes, Penn State was losing by three at halftime, then let up 21 straight points in the second half.

Smith says that it is on him; he has to learn how to finish games as a head coach.

“Coach Smith always says we got to finish, you know, starting fast,” Singleton said. “These past couple of weeks, we haven’t finished.”